A former SiPort engineer has been officially charged with three counts of murder
A former high-tech computer engineer accused of killing three co-workers could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder. Jing Hua Wu, 47, who was fired from SiPort for poor performance, returned to work the same day and shot three co-workers to death last week.
Wu faces three counts of first-degree murder, three gun counts and a special circumstances count after killing multiple people. He did not enter a plea during his recent arraignment in Santa Clara County Superior Court, and is scheduled to appear again on Dec. 18.
He faces life in prison without possibility of parole, or the death penalty, though prosecutors have not publicly said if they'll seek the death penalty.
Wu worked 2 1/2 years at SiPort as a testing and production engineer. Hours after he was fired from the company, he returned with a handgun and asked three executives for a private meeting in one of their offices. He allegedly shot the three executives and then calmly left the building while people cowered in fear.
He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, after shooting SiPort CEO Sid Agrawal, 56; V.P. of operations Brian Pugh, 47; and human resources manager Marilyn Lewis, 67. The three victims were shot inside Agrawal's office and were dead before they could be taken to a hospital.
He was arrested the day after the murders while walking through a shopping center parking lot in Mountain View, Calif. The suspected murder weapon, a 9mm handgun, was found in the car Wu was driving.
Wu is reportedly "sad and distraught about the situation," according to his public defender, Michael Ogul.
Wu is now being held in the mental health ward at Santa Clara County Jail. If released from the mental health ward, Wu would likely enter protective custody. Attorneys assigned to him from the Public Defender's Office said Wu was placed in the mental health ward because he's distraught, and it isn't an attempt towards an insanity defense.
The case isn't the first high profile murder case in the tech industry. Hans Reiser, creator of the ReiserFS Linux file system was found guilty of murdering his wife and then led investigators to her body for a reduced sentence after earlier pleading his innocence. More recently one member of a forum on Nintendo's Advance Wars game murdered another user over an online disagreement.
"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il
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